Themes, Symbolism, and MotifsAdvanced CompositionMaus

Theme• A common thread or repeated idea that is

incorporated throughout a literary work. A theme is a thought or idea the author presents to the reader that may be deep, difficult to understand, or even moralistic.

• In Maus theme is not presented in a preachy manner, such as in fables. In fact, it is not presented directly at all. You extract it from the characters, action, and setting that make up the story. In other words, you must figure out the theme yourself.

Themes in Maus• What are some themes you have already seen in

Maus?

• Familial guilt• Survivor’s guilt • Freedom• Faith• Identity• Conflicts between past and present• Luck• Love

Symbolism• A symbol is a word or object that stands for another word or

object. For example, a dove is a symbol for peace.

• Symbols in Maus?

• Prisons • Eyes• Anthroporphism- giving animals human characteristics

▫ Cats- Jews▫ Mice- Germans▫ pigs - Poles: Jews don’t eat pork and consider the pig a dirty

animal▫ fish - British: the British have been long renowned for their navy. ▫ dogs - Americans: “man’s best friend”; the liberators. ▫ frogs - French: double meaning – frogs are slippery, slimy (; frogs

can change into princes.

Motif•A recurring object, concept, or structure

in a work of literature. A motif is important because it allows one to see main points and themes that the author is trying to express, in order that one might be able to interpret the work more accurately.

(I personally think of motifs as patterns)

•Motifs in Maus?•Numbers/ Dates•Masks •Trains•Circles/ Cycles

All three concepts seem to be similar- so how can I keep them separate?

•Theme(s)- main idea(s). The big take-aways or applications to life.

•Motif- can be a structure, an image, a color, etc. as long as it repeats throughout large portions of the text for a purpose.

•Symbol- an object, character, color, figure that helps to make an abstract idea more concrete.

▫Both symbols and motifs enhance and support the theme!